ts of the morning, and wondering what had become of my friend, and
watching every sound that might tell of his coming. It is true there
were many things I liked not in Duchesne: his cold, sardonic spirit, his
_moqueur_ temperament, chilled and repelled me; but I recognized, even
through his own efforts at concealment, a manly tone of independence,
a vigorous reliance on self, that raised him in my esteem, and made me
regard him with a certain species of admiration. With his unsettled or
unstable political opinions, I greatly dreaded the excess to which a
spirit of revenge might carry him.

I knew that the Jacobin party, and the Bourbons themselves, lay in
wait for every erring member of the Imperial side; and I felt no little
anxiety at the temptations they might hold out to him, at a moment when
his excitement might have the mastery over his cooler judgment.

Late in the evening a Government messenger arrived with a large letter
addressed to him from the Minister of War; and even this caused me fresh
uneasiness, since I connected the despatch in my mind with some detail
of duty which his absence might leave unperformed.

It was long past midnight, as I sat, vainly endeavoring to occupy myself
with a book, which each moment I laid down to listen, when suddenly
I heard the roll of a _fiacre_ in the court beneath, the great doors
banged and closed, and the next moment the chevalier entered the room.

He was dressed in plain clothes, and looked somewhat paler than usual,
but though evidently laboring under excitement, affected his wonted ease
and carelessness of manner, as, taking a chair in front of me, he sat
down.

"What a day of worry and trouble this has been, my dear friend!" he
began. "From the moment I last saw you to the present one, I have not
rested, and with four invitations to dinner, I have not dined anywhere."

He paused as he said thus much, as if expecting me to say something;
and I perceived that the embarrassment he felt rather increased than
otherwise. I therefore endeavored to mumble out something about his
hurried departure and the annoyance of such a sentence, when he stopped
me suddenly.

"Oh, as to _that_, I fancy the matter is arranged already; I should have
had a letter from the War Office."

"Yes, there is one here; it came three hours ago."

He turned at once to the table, and breaking the seal, perused the
packet in silence, then handed it to me, as he said,--

"Bead that; it will s